I suggest you take everything in this book with a very large grain of salt.

When I read the book I couldn't shake the impression that one day Castaneda was sitting in a bar with a friend who absently mentioned lucid dreaming and thought, "Hey; dreaming... yeah, I could write a book about that!" So, with a smudged note or two from his friend on a bar napkin as his full volume of research, Castaneda wrote a book about what he thought dreaming and lucid dreaming ought to be.

It really is mostly wrong and misleading, I think, and, though certainly worth enjoying and perhaps using as a source for forming a dream or two, I don't think it ventures very close to reality. In other words, I suggest that you try not to take it too seriously.

This is my opinion, of course; I could be wrong, and I'm certainly not interested in arguing it with the inevitable Castaneda apostles who will surely beat me up for having it...